Winterlan 2017: Another Year, Another LAN Party

Last year I wrote about Winterlan, my annual gaming retreat. It's December again, which means time to haul my computer over state lines, roll up my sleeves and get ready to pwnz0r some n00blets. I would never write that unironically, in case that's in doubt.

There's the whole crew. Guess which one is me? Seriousface McGee, dead center, seriousing harder than ever before. This time...it's serious. Anyways a few people had to back out last minute, one because of sickness and contagion concern, another due to work, another due to being unable to find a sitter.

This has been going on for 17 years now. It began as my buddy paul networking his Xbox with his friend's Xboxes (the huge original one) to play Halo and Halo 2. Now it's grown to ~20 people and Paul's had to extend the network to an adjacent room to handle spillover from the main one.

Not everything went smoothly. I forgot the power supply for my heated blanket. My keyboard died so I had to make a Wal Mart Run for a replacement, which doesn't even glow.

^source

There was also brutal traffic on the way (a 102 mile trip) due to road work at two points. When I arrived, Paul had an extension cord run out so I could recharge, having totally drained my battery over the first quarter of the journey.

Nothing could stop me though. I always have such fun here, and feel so cozy. We've been playing new Doom, Rocket League, PUBG, Left 4 Dead 2, Suicide Survival (a HL2 mod), Heroes of the Storm, Vermintide and a few more.

I always make a point to play the 2013 remake of Rise of the Triad with the 3 other people who have it (or have even heard of it) because it's such deliberately unbalanced, ridiculous fun.

Suicide Survival is the other tradition, a game where one team is sentient potted plants who blend in with regular plants in vast gardens and can explode at will, where the other team are WW2 fighter pilots who try to nail the sentient plants with books before they can sneak up on them and explode.

I didn't promise it would make any sense. Fun has been had! Weed smoked, various alcoholic libations consumed, computer games played and funny internet videos laughed at. Just a bunch of nerds in a basement with their computers. That's what Christmas is about, Charlie Brown.

I've come so far since last year's Winterlan. I have a car now, I am making decent money at Steemit, I'm seeing somebody new and have a lot more put away into investments. I wonder where I'll be in my life by the time the next Winterlan rolls around?

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<Stay Cozy!>